What causes an acro death like this?

Johnson556 · Apr 8, 2019

I’ve recently been stocking my tank like crazy with Acros, out of the 60+ pieces I’ve added, when I switched to radions I immediately lost 2, a spath and a green slimer (yeah I know....?). I used a par meter to avoid frying the corals and only experience a 8-12 increase in par in some areas of the tank. Radions are set at 35%. A few of the more sensitive pieces experience burnt tips but are now fine.

Almost every other coral seems to be thriving/acclimating but a few of the pieces seem to be turning for the worst and it’s all of the “cheaper” pieces.

Recently I moved this acro to my frag tank. What causes a death like this? First it lost all PE them tissue started to fade/peel away. I have a Tenius (Jackson Rainbow) that still has PE but is now brown and losing skin. Really don’t want to lose that one, or my fox flame.

Parameters are as follows:
dKH - 7.8
Calc - 430
No3 4-6ppm
Po4 - 0.02ish maybe lower
Temp - 77
Sg - 1.026

OnPointCorals · Apr 8, 2019

I can tell you why the spathulata died. It died because it’s a spathulata.

Johnson556 · Apr 8, 2019

Thank you Dom, very helpful haha

LobsterOfJustice · Apr 9, 2019

Phosphate is a little low, and how stable is alkalinity? It can be hard to identify what kills an acro because sometimes you did something a month ago that ticked them off and then they start losing tissue now. Overall, losing a few pieces out of 60+ isn’t bad, sometimes they just don’t make the transition. I used to freak out every time any coral lost tissue but eventually I just accepted the fact that I won’t have 100% survival rate.

Waters · Apr 9, 2019

As stated, the switch from one lighting to another sometimes is just too much of a change for some (especially if they weren't healthy prior to the switch). Sometimes it doesn't matter how careful you try to match par levels....even spectrum change can cause problems. If you only lost a few in 60+ I would consider that a success lol.

CoralWealth · Apr 9, 2019

LobsterOfJustice said:
Phosphate is a little low, and how stable is alkalinity? It can be hard to identify what kills an acro because sometimes you did something a month ago that ****** them off and then they start losing tissue now. Overall, losing a few pieces out of 60+ isn’t bad, sometimes they just don’t make the transition. I used to freak out every time any coral lost tissue but eventually I just accepted the fact that I won’t have 100% survival rate.

+1 to this.

I had real low salinity a month ago, maybe longer and some of my acros are still showing signs of distress when other are doing great. Sometimes can definitely take over 2 months for acros to fully recover unfortunately and sometimes even longer to get their colors back.

Johnson556 · Apr 9, 2019

Alkalinity was 7.6 for months, started to drop to 7.5 here and there so I adjust my dosing accordingly over the course of a few weeks with 5ml increments. After 2 weeks, it was steady at 7.7 for almost a month. Then I did a water change and it caused it to jump to 8.0/7.9 and has since been steady at 7.8 for the past 10 days. As much as that should be my main point of concern, all the tanks I've snagged these sticks from experience much greater swings.

I'm leaning more towards the new lights and low phos but will be making sure my fresh water matches exactly going forward.

jda · Apr 9, 2019

What light did you have before? You cannot use the same PAR with LEDs that you did other types of light... if you do, it takes months and months to get there. You have to start really low and slowly raise it while looking for things like this.

That looks like light burn or too much flow.

The phosphate is fine... don't got down that wormhole. Any excess is enough and you have excess.

Johnson556 · Apr 9, 2019

I went from six 80 Watt T5's with 3 kessil a360we's to 4 80 watt t5's with 3 radion xr30 g4 pros. Started at 50% and brought it down to 35% after a day and one pi$$ed of echinata.

Too much flow is a possibility but unlikely, I have 4 MP40's set at 100% reef crest but no acros get direct blasts. But polyps are flying around everywhere for the acros with good PE.

I'm happy with my po4 as that 0.02 is 100% an exaggeration. My Hannah checker rarely detects anything but based on how my glass produces a film after a few days and me feeding 4 cubes of frozen a day, there's no way I don't have po4 floating around.

Before I started feeding 4 cubes a day, I was feeding 3 a day received the following results from ati. This was about 2 months ago after not doing a water change for over two months

cain720 · Apr 9, 2019

Has anyone ever had a acro frag recover from STN without fragging? I added my acro (green slimer) about a month ago, and within 2 days a couple of it's branches completely lost all tissue. I attributed it to a dosing miscalculation since my alk crept up to 11.5 dkh with very low nutrient levels. I've corrected the parameters which completely stopped the STN. The frag now seems very happy with great color and PE aside from the 2 dead branches.

Over the past couple weeks the frag has shown improved PE but no tissue regrowth over the dead spot. Will it eventually regrow tissue over the dead branches, or should I try and frag the healthy part?

Johnson556 · Apr 9, 2019

I fried a few pieces about 4 months ago from trying to dos po4, big mistake. Everything has recovered since, just takes a long long time.

SeaDweller · Apr 9, 2019

cain720 said:
Has anyone ever had a acro frag recover from STN without fragging? I added my acro (green slimer) about a month ago, and within 2 days a couple of it's branches completely lost all tissue. I attributed it to a dosing miscalculation since my alk crept up to 11.5 dkh with very low nutrient levels. I've corrected the parameters which completely stopped the STN. The frag now seems very happy with great color and PE aside from the 2 dead branches.

Over the past couple weeks the frag has shown improved PE but no tissue regrowth over the dead spot. Will it eventually regrow tissue over the dead branches, or should I try and frag the healthy part?

I have a BC brain candy from therman that keeps kicking the bucket on me after 2 weeks. This most recent one I left it alone. 98%+ of the tissue is gone except for 3-4 polyps. I was sure it was dead anyway, but nope. The three polyps are still surviving so I’m glad I didn’t chuck the piece. Time will tell if it survives and if it does I’ll be happy. I wouldn’t frag it. Leave it alone

Johnson556 · Apr 9, 2019

I planned on dipping the piece pictured above in revive and then leaving to heal in frag tank. Well, woke this morning and saw I left it in the revive dip overnight, RIP.

MnFish1 · Apr 9, 2019

jda said:
What light did you have before? You cannot use the same PAR with LEDs that you did other types of light... if you do, it takes months and months to get there. You have to start really low and slowly raise it while looking for things like this.

That looks like light burn or too much flow.

The phosphate is fine... don't got down that wormhole. Any excess is enough and you have excess.

I try to buy corals from an LFS - or vendor that uses the same kind of lights I do - and ask them the PAR - if not - it has not been worth it..... That said - in my head - I think that must be a myth.... go lower at first - I disagree that it takes months and month - its more like days - weeks.

SeaDweller · Apr 9, 2019

Johnson556 said:
I planned on dipping the piece pictured above in revive and then leaving to heal in frag tank. Well, woke this morning and saw I left it in the revive dip overnight, RIP.

noob.

RIP

jda · Apr 9, 2019

I would not dip a stressed coral in Coral Rx or Revive anyway. Those are harsh dips.

dean.reef · Apr 9, 2019

I have had numerous sps recover from stn,stn normally tells me something is off with the tank although 9times out of 10 I can’t normally figure it out as my parameters are stable,i usually do 3-4 20%water changes over a course of a week.dark carols can be lack of light high po4 or high levels of trace minerals,imo